1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



95 



position to that of Dr. Loring, who pronoun- 

 ces "green corn stalks the poorest and mean- 

 est fodder ever given to a cow." Corn is a 

 rich food ; and do not the stalks contain, in a 

 green state, all the materials which constitute 

 the corn ? Sweet corn stalks make excellent 

 fodder, after the ear is picked. I pulled mine 

 up by the roots and the cows eat them close 

 to the root. A year ago I had my corn stalks 

 cut close to the ground. I had always disliked 

 the appearance of corn buts on the farm, and 

 knew it took a long time to convert them into 

 plant food. I had them cut up very fine, put 

 into a tub at night and boiling water poured 

 on to them, and let them stand till morning. 

 The taste of the liquid told that there was 

 sugar there, which is good for milk and butter. 

 A little meal was added, and the cows ate it 

 up clean. But I had other fall feed. About 

 the first of June I planted about one-eighth of 

 an acre with mangold wurtzels, carrots and 

 ruta bagas, and raised one hundred bushels in 

 all. I had a furrow opened with the plough, 

 into this the manure was put, and where the 

 mangolds were planted, salt was sprinkled on 

 the manure, which was covered up with the 

 hoe. Then a small drill was made with a stick, 

 for the seed; and I had a splendid crop. Af- 

 ter the leaves of the m-angolds are pretty well 

 grown, the lower ones will fall off and rot, but 

 I had the boys anticipate this and pick them 

 off; also the lower leaves of the ruta bagas. 

 These were fed to the cows, with good re- 

 sults. We estimated that we got almost as 

 large a bulk of fodder as from an equal quan- 

 tity of land planted to corn ; but we did not 

 think they were equal as fodder, but they are 

 a steady supply, for as soon as you have been 

 once over you can begin again, and so con- 

 tinue till frost comes. About the middle of 

 October I began to dig my roots, feeding the 

 tops to the cows, and only dug each day as 

 many as it would be safe to give them. Thus 

 when the roots were all dug, the tops were 

 eaten up clean. 



There is danger of "running things into 

 the ground." A persons hears that a certain 

 article is good for a given purpose ; at once 

 he uses it exclusively or inconsiderately. Cot- 

 ton seed meal is great on exciting milk, and 

 some farmers know no limits to its use, and 

 feed cotton seed meal and poor hay to their 

 cows till they have poor animals or none, as 

 the result ; others feed roots in the same man- 

 ner, but perhaps with less injurious results. 

 But feeders ought to use judgment; they 

 should have a purpose in feeding, and adapt 

 means to the desired end. Dr. Loring sells 

 milk, and is great on roots ; but he eschews 

 oleaginous substances. These, however, are 

 essential to butter and manure ; but for mere 

 quantity of milk they may be less so. 



Having talked over the matter we — my wife 

 and myself — concluded to make butter instead 

 of selling the milk. Butter would require 

 good feed ; but good feed would make good 



manure ; and good manure would make good 

 grass, which would complete the circuit for 

 good butter again. Then we should have 

 skim milk for pigs and heifer calves, and but- 

 ter would take little from the land, — its ele- 

 ments coming mainly from the atmosphere. 

 Cows left to themselves will have a mixed 

 diet. We must take nature for our guide. 



In winter I go to the barn at half-past five 

 o'clock in the morning, rather sooner perhaps, 

 than a good many would like to go. I give 

 each cow a small handful of hay, and then go 

 to grooming them just the same as I should a 

 horse — first the curry comb, then the corn 

 broom brush, and then the hair brush — keep- 

 ing them supplied with hay, a small quantity 

 at a time, for about an hour. Then the boy 

 milks. At night we fill a pork barrel with cut 

 hay with which we mix about a half a peck of 

 cotton seed meal, half a peck of corn meal, 

 and half a peck of shorts. Upon this mixture 

 we pour hot water, and cover with an air tight 

 lid. In the morning we pour on more hot 

 water, and after milking this is given to the 

 cows ; at eight o'clock they are turned out to 

 water; at noon, when the boys come from 

 school, they are fed with hay', and at four 

 o'clock a little more hay ; they are then turned 

 out to water. After which they are fed each 

 a pailful of mangolds, ruta bagas and carrots 

 cut fine ; then cleaned and milked, then they 

 have each about two quarts of cotton seed 

 meal, corn meal and shorts — equal quantities 

 of each ; upon this boiling water is poured, to 

 which cold water is added enough to fill a pail, 

 with a little salt ; after this a little more hay, 

 and they are left for the night. 



And now for the result. We sell one hun- 

 dred and thirty-six quarts of new milk a 

 month ; in November we sold fifty-seven 

 pounds of butter ; in December we shall sell 

 about the same quantity, besides what we have 

 for family use. This is from two cows and a 

 heifer that was two years old last April, and 

 calved the first of May. One of the cows 

 dropped her calf in May, the other last Sep- 

 tember. We made batter all last winter, and 

 shall make it all this winter. It pays better to 

 make butt r in winter than summer. Churn- 

 ing has never exceeded half an hour, and gen- 

 erally inside of that time. The milk is not 

 scalded, but the cream bgfore churning is 

 brought to a temperature of about sixty de- 

 grees. I would say here that my wife was 

 brought up on a New England farm, and that 

 she loves to make butter ; but she is satisfied 

 that unless the cows are properly fed she can- 

 not make good butter, and the fact that her 

 butter comes so quick she ascribes to the feed- 

 ing of the cows, and she thinks it would take 

 more than half an hour to bring butter from 

 Dr. Loring's milk, where the cows are not 

 allowed oleaginous food. A neighbor of mine 

 some little time ago, told me my cows were 

 too fat, and would dry up. A short time after 

 he asked me how my wife got her batter, he 



